Home Depot Center is like a playground for Real Salt Lake forward Fabian Espindola

By Michael C. Lewis The Salt Lake Tribune

Published October 6, 2012 11:28 pm

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Carson, Calif. • Hey, you know what? Go ahead and make Real Salt Lake play a make-or-break playoff game against the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center.

Fabian Espindola will take care of it.

The relentless Argentine scored twice in a three-minute span for RSL on Saturday night, not only lifting it to a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy but continuing his own personal highlight show on the vast expanse at the HDC.

"It's a huge field," he said, "so difficult to mark."

In other words, defenders can't keep up with him  and the results speak for themselves.

In four games here this season  two against the Galaxy, two against Chivas USA  Espindola has scored five goals and contributed three assists. The assists all came in a 4-0 win over Chivas last weekend, and RSL has won all four games here this season by a combined 12-2 score.

"It's not a surprise, because we know how talented he is," defender Chris Wingert said. "We know that when Fabian is playing his best, he's a top guy in the league."

Even when he's sick, evidently.

Espindola said he was ill for a couple of days last week, and was exhausted from all the work he did against the Galaxy  even if the game could wind up remembered more for the knee injury suffered by captain Landon Donovan in a late-game collision with RSL's Jamison Olave. The Galaxy had no immediate prognosis for their star forward.

Espindola said scoring quickly after the Galaxy's Robbie Keane struck was crucial for RSL to bounce back from a situation in which it had been 2-10-1 this season. 

En fuego

RSL's Fabian Espindola has been unstoppable at the Home Depot Center this season: